1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an adjustable leg. More particularly, the present invention relates to an adjustable leg for use with a bench, stilt, or the like used by workmen engaged in sheetrocking, plastering, painting, and other building construction procedures.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the building construction field, and primarily in the interior finishing of both residential and commercial buildings, it is common for workers such as painters, wallboard installers, plasterers, etc., to use adjustable stilts or benches that have legs that can be vertically adjusted to alter their height and allow various tasks to be performed at higher elevations. By way of example, adjustable stilts are commonly used during the installation of wallboards. Typically, the stilts include a pair of rigidly connected vertically adjustable legs defined by upper and lower struts, the bottom of each lower strut being attached to a rubber footpad, the upper ends of the upper struts being strapped to the workman's foot and leg.
Adjustable benches are also used extensively, not only in wallboard installation, but in plastering, painting, and other building construction and/or finishing procedures. The adjustable benches typically have a planar work platform for workers to stand or walk on and a supporting framework comprised of four, independently adjustable legs that allow the bench work platform to be kept in a generally horizontal disposition while the legs are resting on several different elevations. For example, when working on a wall or walls defining a stairway well, it will be appreciated that to maintain a horizontal work platform upon which workers can stand, one end of the bench will have the legs adjusted to one height, and the opposite end of the bench will have the legs adjusted to a second longer or shorter height, depending on the relative disposition of the bench on the stairway. In any event, the ability to independently adjust the four legs of the bench to various heights greatly simplifies the problem of maintaining a level, substantially horizontal work platform in an environment where the floor and other supporting surfaces for the legs are at various levels.
As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,516, it is desirable that the adjustable legs used on stilts, benches, and the like have a quick-release mechanism that allows the height to be quickly and securely adjusted. Accordingly, there is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,516 a quick-action lock that employs a single, integral curve spring that carries a pair of adjustment pegs and firmly maintains the pegs within registering adjustment holes in the upper and lower struts. The adjustable legs disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,516 suffer from the disadvantage that the quick-release lock is not readily accessible to a worker and requires substantial squeezing force between the thumb and forefinger of a user in order to disengage the lock and adjust the leg height.